


Questions for Harry

by car_yl



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:08:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27701834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/car_yl/pseuds/car_yl
Summary: Rick has questions for Harry or does he?
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	Questions for Harry

**Author's Note:**

> All the usual disclaimers apply: I don't own nor do I profit from the use of Jim Butcher's characters or universe. I just borrow and visit.

  
“Rick? You had me hauled in, again?” Harry sounded totally surprised, Looked totally surprised and why not? He hadn’t done anything, as far as I could tell, other than speak to John Marcone. He’d just been doing it a lot since the Battle, since Karrin….

I’d seen him during interrogations before thanks to Karrin. I knew he knew the drill evidenced by the fact that he had retained all his jewelry.

God he wore a lot for a guy. I could even see a little scar where he’d once sported an earring. He wasn’t wearing one now but he had on a necklace, multiple rings and a bracelet. Made me wonder if he had any hidden body jewelry. And if so, where? Would Karrin have known? She wouldn’t have told me if she did.

He had been persuaded to leave his stick outside the interrogation room. Yet, he was still wearing his ever present leather coat and whatever was in the pockets was still there. He knew his rights. He wasn’t under arrest. More’s the pity. Just here for questioning, being asked to ‘help us’ with our inquiries. Voluntarily. He even had a concealed carry permit on file these days, but the gun, if he’d had one, would have had to be left outside the room too.

“Yes Harry,” I spoke calmly, trying to put him at his ease. Not gonna be easy when I’d had him picked up off the street by a pair of federal officers flashing badges in as obvious a way as could be managed. “I was hoping I could ask you a few questions about John Marcone.”

Harry smirked. He kicked back in the metal chair, crossed his arms across his chest and his legs at the ankles stretching them out to their full length in front of him. “Sure,” he said, stretching the word to about four syllables. “Ask away. I’ll just reserve the right not to answer anything I don’t want to.”

“God, you’ve always been a cocky bastard.” I shook my head. “Not even a little,” I held my thumb and forefinger a bare inch apart, “intimidated by being brought in by federal agents?”

Harry’s grin was all teeth and completely mirthless. “Not any more. Got over that about six visits ago. First it’s Lara’s business you want to know about. Then, apropos of nothing, you want to know how I got title to my home, since it used to belong to Marcone. Then you butt into my family life, wanting to know how I can afford St. Mark’s when I seem, to you, to have no income. I could go on but, it’s all in the same vein. I’m beginning to think none of it is official or has anything to do with Marcone either. It’s personal isn’t it, Rick?”

“It’s RICH, Harry.” I said through gritted teeth.

He leaned forward putting his feet flat on the floor and his elbows on his knees. He looked up at me with his head tilted, his face cold, flat. Not the face of the man I used to see squiring my ex- at family gatherings. “What the hell do you want RICK? Just get it off your chest and leave me the hell alone.”

His face didn’t change but there was something in his eyes. The eyes that never looked anyone straight in the eye. Straight in the face, yeah but not eye to eye. If it was anyone else I’d flip off the recorder and surveillance devices but I’d learned that Harry’s ‘condition’ that made him unable to use high tech devices also affected our recording equipment. So, I just waived off the stenographer and the other agent who were sitting on the other side of the two-way mirror. Not many rooms still had the two-way glass. So I always had to make sure to use this one with Dresden, which meant these little tete-a-tete were beginning to get noticed. I wouldn’t be able to keep pulling this on the man much longer. An official reprimand would not look good on my record and Lisa was even more ambitious for me than I am for myself.

“You really had me fooled Dresden. I thought you loved Karrin. But you couldn’t have or you wouldn’t be getting married to someone else on the First anniversary-“

I didn’t even see him move! He’d pinned me to the wall with his forearm across my throat. His lips drawn back in a snarl. I’d never seen him look ferocious! Pissed, irked, sly, angry but never like he Really wanted to kill me. I felt a wave of cold wash over me like a breeze heralding an arctic gale. I felt my eyes grow large and knew my fear was showing on my face. I saw something in Dresden’s face like a battle raging within. I began to feel a strange pull as I looked at his fiery eyes.

Then he closed them and turned his head away. His face distorted and a hint of moisture appeared at the corner of the eye I could see. “You don’t know my life Rick.” he hissed. 

He pushed away from me, completely cutting off my air for a split second. He turned his whole body away from me, showing me his back. He couldn’t have showed his disdain any more clearly. He walked to the door and stood in front of it. “Open it, Rick.” he rasped. Did I imagine it or did I hear a world of pain in those few words?

I swallowed with difficulty. “No,” my voice a loud whisper at best.

Harry’s hands balled into fists. “What do you want me to tell you Rick? That I’ll never stop loving Karrin? That this farce of a wedding is something I’m… being forced into?” Dresden turned his head just enough to show me a quarter of his profile. He was pale, drawn and I thought I saw him tremble. “Karrin’s dead. She died in my arms. Her mother is dead. The only other Murphy I really ever cared about, ” He gasped, “and I am no longer part of your world Rick.” He spat my name, vehemently. He took a slow deep breath. 

“Lara has lots of very talented lawyers Rick. Leave me alone or I’ll let her sic them on you for harassment.” He placed one hand flat on the wall above the door frame leaning on it for support as if he might collapse at any moment. His shoulders sagged. “I don’t want to see you again Rick.” He turned his head further in my direction and in a low rumble that neared a subsonic range, “I may not be able to control my response if I do.” 

It was definitely a threat of violence but too vague to be actionable even if there were anyone else around to hear it. I’d heard the rumors of what he’d done during the Battle, though I hadn’t seen any of it. If even a tenth of what was told about him were true… I suddenly believed the threat. I understood in that second what it meant to quail before another being. I think I knew now why the informer, Rudolph? was so terrified of the man my ex-wife had replaced me with.

Had he been like this with her? I didn’t think so. Is this what losing her did to him? He HAD loved her! More than I ever had. I’d wanted her. I’d been jealous of Dresden. I wasn’t jealous now. I wouldn’t want that kind of pain for anything. I knew I’d never feel a loss that deeply, never let it change me that much, not even Lisa.

I hit the release button for the door. Dresden stalked out. I stepped out after him, not to follow. Just to watch him go.

When he got to the end of hall he muttered a couple of words. There was a loud clattering from the direction of the entry and his staff came flying- literally flying through the air! Straight into his now outstretched hand with a resounding slap. I swear my jaw hit my chest! He struck the floor with the end of his staff. The whole building shuddered for a second and every door between him and the front of the building flew open. -I checked surveillance later to make sure I hadn’t imagined it.- He walked out unhindered. I wasn’t the only one gaping at his exit. 

How-? How had he played such a goofball when he had that kind of power? How had he hidden it at all those holidays and weddings and gatherings? Had Karrin known? Yes, I realized, she had. Some of it anyway. Maybe not the full extent but- God, the woman was braver than I knew!

I also knew I wouldn’t be asking any more questions of him without official approval.

**Author's Note:**

> Fulfilling a request for moparviper. Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
